Advice for supervisors

Assisting students with preparing PhD theses for submission

All theses submitted for examination after 1 March 2013 are automatically made open access in Spiral - they are freely available on the internet to read and share under a Creative Commons Licence.

PhD students, registered for an Imperial College London Degree are now allowed to choose a licence for their thesis from the six licences offered by Creative Commons. Visit Selecting a Creative Commons Licence for more information about these licences and to view the accompanying copyright statements.

It is important that you make your students aware of this guidance and check that they have obtained the necessary permissions to reproduce published works (their own and those of others). You are strongly advised to introduce students to this advice as soon as possible after they start their PhD programme.

Students, with their supervisor’s support, can request an embargo to delay, or in extreme circumstances, prevent the public release of a thesis. This may be necessary to protect future publications, a patent agreement, sensitive personal data, national security or honour a sponsorship contract.